


The Flip phone

by fineandwittie



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: And how they literally just blamed the entire thing on Tony, Angst, Fuck that shit so hard, I AM SO ANGRY, I saw it a week ago and I am still so angry, I saw the movie and absolutely despised it and what they did to Steve, Like Anything steve does automatically gets a pass because he's Captain America, M/M, One-Sided Attraction, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Talk of Suicide, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony's reaction, Unresolved Ending, my poor baby, no happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-22
Updated: 2016-05-22
Packaged: 2018-06-09 22:58:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6927391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fineandwittie/pseuds/fineandwittie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The flip phone was basically just one final Fuck You from Steve and Tony...well, Tony is just so tired of all of it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Flip phone

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'd. Kind of ranty.

The phone sits there on his desk, innocuous and so annoying. Save sent him a flip phone. As though everything that had happened hadn’t been enough, he salts the wound with a fucking flip phone, like he doesn’t want to have anything to do with tech that Tony even inadvertently helped create. 

The phone sits there, like it has been for the past week. Tony can’t bring himself to touch it, never mind pick it up and move it. The letter that had accompanied it…that had gone into the paper shredder. 

After everything that had happened, Steve had had the nerve to send him that letter. Any time Tony thought about it, his stomach roiled. Everything about the last few weeks…Tony doesn’t see where it went wrong.

No. That’s not true. He knows exactly where things went wrong; he just doesn’t want to believe it. The whole thing went to shit when Bucky turned up again. Because Steve is a blind fool when it comes to good ol’ James Buchanan Barnes.

He’d defied several international laws, endangered the lives of everyone else he claimed to care about, and almost killed Tony all because of Bucky. Tony brushed a hand across his chest. His breathing was still restricted from the bandages the doctor’s had wrapped him in. He had a couple of cracked ribs and more bruising than you could shake a stick at, but it was completely by coincidence that the shield edge had caught one of the supports in the suit. The only thing that had prevented it from driving right down into his sternum. 

He thought he was worth more to Steve than that. He’d thought they’d been friends. Clearly that was another person he never had a snowball’s chance in hell of understanding. 

Pepper…he’d thought that was something that would last. He’d thought, for once, he could be himself, could hold on to someone he loved. He’d been wrong there. She still wasn’t even speaking to him.

Happy…Happy hadn’t spoken to him since the incident with the Mandarin. He didn’t really blame Happy. He’d paid the man to spend time with him, so it’s not like he could expect him to actually care.

His parents were dead. His father, when he’d been living, could not have possibly cared any less about him as a person. He was too preoccupied with his legacy. His mother…she’d loved him and he loved her fiercely right back. She’d been strangled by the Winter Soldier.

Rhodey’d lost the use of his legs thanks to Tony’s clusterfuck of a life. He wouldn’t be surprised if, after getting back on his feet, Rhodey never wanted to speak to him again.

And Steve. Steve was was supposed to be a paragon of American values and morality. Steve who had abandoned everything and everyone to save a _murderer_. Steve who knew what Bucky had done, who lied to Tony every day by keeping it from him. Steve who he loved more fiercely than he loved his mother and certainly more fiercely than he’d ever loved Pepper. Steve who thought he was hardly worth the effort it took to kill him properly. Steve who had destroyed his suit and left him to die in a bunker in Siberia. 

He would have too. Died, that is. If not for T’challa, he’d be dead right now.

He rubbed the center of his chest, where the Extremis had burned itself out of his system repairing his heart and the gaping hole in his chest. He hadn’t had this much trouble breathing since the arc reactor and he wasn’t sure if it was the injuries or something a little less tangible. 

He was alone again. At least Dummy was still buzzing around the workshop, trying to make edible smoothies and mostly failing. 

The team…Steve had given him the team in that damned letter. What a joke. Steve had destroyed the team. He’d broken them into pieces. Most of them were now fugitives, having broken out of that stupid underwater prison. Bucky was supposedly back in the cryo-freeze, so a fat lot of good any of it had done. It wasn’t like they could have killed him anyway, if Steve had just listened to reason. Bucky’d gotten the same or similar treatment as Steve. He was effectively immortal. Tony had a freeze room prepared at the compound, so that Steve could have visited Bucky on the off chance that he would hear them.

None of it mattered now. The Avengers Initiative was dead. ( _Iron Man: Yes. Tony Stark: No._ )

Tony realized he’d zoned out while staring at the flip phone when it began to buzz against the desktop. He stared at it for a moment. It was surreal. Steve was calling him.

Steve thought he had the right to call him.

Fuck Steve.

His hand reached for the phone without his permission. He couldn’t seem to stop himself from pulling it to himself and flipping it open. 

“Tony?”

Tony’s entire body seized up at the sound of Steve’s voice. “What do you want?” His voice, thank all fuck, was flat and empty.

There was a brief pause. “Tony, I…I just wanted to make sure you got my letter and the phone in case of emergencies.”

The laugh that tore itself out of Tony’s throat didn’t sound entirely human. “Got your letter? Oh yeah. I got your letter.” He swallowed harshly and took a breath. “Don’t call me. Don’t send me letters. Don’t contact me in anyway ever again, Rogers. If someone needs help, make Natasha do it. Or Wanda. Or T’Challa.”

“How did you-“

“Don’t play stupid. It’s not an attractive quality. And don’t interrupt me when I’m talking.” There was a beat of silence. “Better. Like I said. Do not contact me again. I don’t want to hear your voice or see your face. Do you understand?”

“Tony, what?”

“Do. You. Understand?”

“No. No, Tony, I don’t. What happened? What’s wrong? I-“

Tony actually pulled the phone away from his head to stare at it for a second, incredulous. “What happened? You killed my suit, rammed a shield into my chest, and left me for dead in Siberia.”

“I didn’t—“

“The shield killed the last of the suit’s functions, Rogers. I couldn’t have flown out anyway because you and your boyfriend killed the propulsion, but you just had to exact your pound of flesh to protect the honor of the man that _beat my father’s head in with his fist_. Your fun little trick with that shield nearly killed me. Is that what you wanted? To be a murderer, just like your _friend_. You almost succeeded. You did manage to crack several of my ribs. Your buddy T’Challa’s playing both sides of the field, by the way. If he hadn’t brought me back to civilization, I would have frozen to death. Were you going for poetic justice?”

There was a moment of dead silence on the other end of the phone, while Tony tried to get his breathing back under control. 

Finally, Steve choked out, “What? I didn’t…That can’t be…”

“Rogers, whenever that murderous bastard is involved, you go blind. No one was ever going to kill him. I don’t think anyone can anyway. I had a room set up to cryofreeze him until i could figure out how to undo the brainwashing. But you didn’t care to stay long enough to find that out. Instead, you jeopardized the entire team. Because of you, Rhodey will never walk again. He nearly died. Do you understand that? Rhodey nearly died.”

There was a muffled noise through the phone that might have been a sob. “I’m sorry. Tony…I don’t know what to say. I didn’t know. I—“

“Of course you didn’t know, you asshole. You never stop for one single second to think that maybe you are not the only person on this earth who can make plans. I’m a goddamn engineer. And you are not our lord and savior. God. I’m so fucking done with this. Don’t call back or I’ll throw the phone away. Oh and thanks for the massive fuck you of sending a flip phone by the way.”

He hung up, hyperventilating. His vision was beginning to narrow and he thought he might be crying. 

Fuck. Why hadn’t he just died in that goddamn cave? For the first time, he felt a flash of hatred for Yinsen. He’d been saved to correct his legacy. To save others. Except he’d only managed to fuck everything up more. He was a waste of oxygen and space. 

There was not a single person on the earth who would care in any significant way if Tony Stark simply ceased to exist. If he took a long walk off the roof of this complex. Six stories should be enough to kill him. Especially if he tipped over, headfirst. He was just so goddamn tired. Tired of living, tired of the pain, tired of watching everyone he'd ever loved walk away. 

He dropped his head to the desk and tried to get his breathing under control. 

Even JARVIS was gone. 

It took over half an hour, but he managed to put himself back together. He couldn't do anything until he upgraded Rhodey's new legs. After? Well...he did have those sleeping pills left over from his last stint in the hospital.


End file.
